Deficience

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A shortage or insufficiency of something required or necessary
2. The state of lacking an adequate amount or supply of something essential
3. An absence or inadequacy of something that is needed or expected

Etymology: "Deficience" is a rare variant of "deficiency," and its history is a simple one: it comes from Late Latin "dēficientia," a noun built from "dēficere," meaning "to fail" or "to be lacking." That verb combines "dē-," meaning "away" or "down," with "facere," "to make" or "do," so the underlying sense is something like "to come away from" or "to fall short of" a required amount. The Latin noun gave English a family of words for shortfall and failing, and "deficience" sits alongside the more common "deficiency" as one of several forms of the same idea. The variant is less frequently used in modern English, but it follows the same pattern as many abstract nouns that entered the language from Latin through Old French or directly from Latin scholarly writing.